Johnny Friedlaender

Gotthard Johnny Friedlaender German Artist: b. 1912-1992. He was born in Pless, Upper Silesia, the son of an apothecary. After refugeeing from Pless to Breslau in 1921, he enrolled at the Breslau Art Academy in 1928, where he attended the master classes taught by Otto Mueller. After the war years and moving from place to place, Friedlaender and his wife settled in Paris as political refugees in 1937, where Friedlaender showed his etchings at ‘L’quipe’ and ‘Matières et Formes’, groups headed by Gaston Diehl. The war made Friedlaender leave Paris but he returned in 1945. He worked for various journals and concentrated on etching as his main medium of expression but continued to do some watercolours. In 1948 Friedlaender went to Denmark, where he had exhibitions, including one at the Birch Gallery in Copenhagen, which was followed by others. Friedlaender was one of the great inventors in coloured printmaking. A school formed in Paris round his work as a painter and printmaker and his coloured etchings were internationally aclaimed. In 1992 Johnny Friedlaender died in Paris, where he had spent most of his adult life.